Sermon delivered April 26, 2003 by Pastor Donald J.
Gettys

McDonald Road Seventh-day Adventist Church

McDonald, Tennessee

Biblical quotations are from the New International
Version NIV unless otherwise noted. Divine pronouns and
titles are capitalized.

Thyatira: Jezebel or Jesus

Revelation 2:18-20

We were in the process of lighting up church number four. This
week we are talking about the fourth church of the seven churches
of the book Revelation. Church number four is the one right in
the middle, and so we're going to be talking about Thyatira.

Back when I was a student at Indiana Academy in Cicero. I
noticed that the tiny town was shaped much like a cross. The
little town had basically grown up along highway 19. There was
one main cross road toward the middle of town. One day I was
getting a hair cut at Purkies Barber shop when I heard a joke
about our town. They said, "Cicero has two streets: Main Street
and Plum Street. Turn off of Main and you are Plum out of town!"
Well, you know, this was about the shape of the fourth church
Jesus talks about in Revelation 2:18-29

Thyatira was positioned in a long open valley where a river
flowed. I think there is a railroad track goes down that valley
today. Like all the seven churches of Revelation, there really
was an early Christian church in this town. We are talking about
literal churches as Christianity got its start. Notice that the
candlestick upon which it sit is the shortest. And, that's
absolutely the truth in the Scriptures. This was the least
important of all the churches, but I can tell you that major
problems can happen in small churches.

Have you noticed that? The smaller they get, the matriarch,
she's in charge. Or that patriarch, he's in charge. And big
problems can happen in small churches. So, does Jesus make a
mistake when he gives counsel to this church that is twice as
long as it is to any other church? Did you notice that? It's
twice as long, almost, as any other. And why does Jesus do this?
I think it ought to tell us something about our Savior. We look
at things opposite of what Jesus dos. Each of us sees things
differently.

Each of the other six are connected with some other church on the
candlestick but not so with Thyatira. It sits alone in the
middle of the other churches. Historically Thyatira symbolizes
the longest period of church history: almost a 1000 years from
538 to the sixteenth century reformation. No wonder Jesus'
letter to this church is twice as long as any other. Jesus knew
what He was doing, didn't He. It is the middle church of the
seven. It is also the church of the Middle Ages. So, there's a
lot of things in here that you can really study. (See
Holzhauser, The Apocalypse, p. 158)

Let's look now at Revelation 2:18. "To the angel of the
church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, (These are Jesus'
words. Then he describes his eyes.) whose eyes are like
blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

It sounds like Daniel 10:6. ...his face was like lightning,
his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam
of burnished bronze. Now, Jesus describes his eyes. "His
eyes like a shimmering flame of bright fire." This poor church
existed during the dark ages. So, what does the church in the
dark ages need? Jesus brought light for those in darkness. Here
comes shining Jesus with the light emitting from His eyes, the
source of intelligence. Jesus brought light to this church that
was in the darkness. And I think that is significant.

And His feet are like burnished bronze. Thyatira was a great
manufacturing center. They had many foundries in Thyatira. Have
you ever been in a foundry? It gets pretty bright in there. The
flames and all the molten metal and the big furnaces belching
forth. And he says His feet were like red hot brass, shiny
brass, molten bronze; like the reflection of the foundry fires in
that city. Jesus' eyes flame like the foundry fires.

In Revelation 2:19 Jesus said, "I know your deeds, your love
and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now
doing more than you did at first. One of the other churches,
you remember, was doing less. This church does more. They were
full of good works of love, and continually improving. As we get
older we ought to get riper and sweeter and not rotten. We ought
to get better. They had:

-Love and Faith

-
Service and Perseverance

I think you will realize that love produces service or works, and
faith produces Perseverance or Endurance. So, it's interesting
the parallels here.

Near the town of Thyatira was a church. How would you like to be
a member of that church? Its a good church. It sounds pretty
good on the surface doesn't it? This church was staunch and
powerful. We would be inspired by their lay activities and
growth. Each pew was probably packed. But are packed pews
evidence of true religion? I don't think so.

I've seen some great churches where thousands attend. But
commitment must accompany attendance. Otherwise, instead of
God's house, you've got a club house . When the church draws a
crowd because of the theatrics in its service it is committing
spiritual adultery. You came here today to be introduced to
Jesus. You came to be fed from the word of God. You came to be
motivated for the service of God. If you find yourself coming
because you enjoy being entertained you might as well attend the
entertainment club downtown. Because we're not competing with
them.

Have you ever heard of anyone who used to live in Thyatira? Yes!
Sure you have. In Acts 16:14 a lady named Lydia lived there.
She was a seller of purple, a purple cloth that was dyed a
purple. Thyatira was the center of a dyeing industry. I think
America has a lot of dying industry today, but not that type. A
lot of industry is dying today in America but they actually dyed
cloth. Many early Christians there were in the business of
dyeing. And I think this could be true today also.

Near Thyatira the madder root could be dug in great quantities.
It yielded a bright red dye that the ancients called purple.
Actually, it was not purple. It was actually red, bright red.
Commercial dyers of woolen goods in those days were members of
trade guilds. This exposes a problem for the Christians of
Thyatira much like it might be for Christians today who join some
labor unions.

The early trade guilds in Thyatira held common meals in a heathen
temple and ate food which had been offered to idols. Would you
eat food that had been offered to idols? Not if you were a
Christian, you wouldn't, because it's described in many places in
the bible that we ought not to do that. At these great trade
guilds there was gaiety and drunkenness and all sorts of things.
A woman named Jezebel was encouraging Christians to go ahead and
join these trade unions, these guilds, to go ahead and attend
these parties. Because the Lord will protect you from spiritual
damage anyway. So eat drink and be merry. You've got to make a
living.

Jesus describes the Jezebel problem in Revelation 2:20.
"Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching
she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of
food sacrificed to idols.

Apparently most of the church tolerated or permitted Jezebel's
heresies. By the way, what color does Jezebel wear? Red. It's
interesting isn't it. The Thyatiran color. The attire of this
apostate church.

Revelation 2:21,22. "I have given her time to repent (God
is patient, isn't He.) of her immorality, but she is
unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will
make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless
they repent of her ways.

The judgment comes to the leader, Jezebel, first and then to the
followers. Her followers can still repent but her fate is
sealed. Jezebel's punishment dovetails with her crime. Her bed
was a place of immorality and she suffers befittingly. Sin
repays according to our deeds. - Revelation 22:12.

Maybe Jezebel was a church member. Gifted leaders can still
mislead. She called herself a prophetess. Can a woman be a
prophet? Absolutely! The Bible describes eight different ladies
who were true prophetesses of God. Exodus 15:20, Judges 4:4, II
Kings 22:14, Luke 2:36, and Acts 21:9. But considering Jesus'
condemnation of Jezebel we know that she was a false prophet.

How do you know if a prophet is true? Jesus said: Matthew 7:20
By their fruits ye shall know them. Isaiah 8:20 says:
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

And here was Jezebel encouraging church members to sin sexually
and eat meat offered to idols. These were bad problems. Paul
describes this in I Corinthians 8 through 10. Idol meat was
everywhere. Do you know how it came to exist? William Barclay
says: "When a man made a sacrifice in a Greek temple, very little
of the meat was burned on the altar. Sometimes all that was
actually burned was a few hairs cut from the forehead of the
animal. The priests received a share...and the worshiper
received the rest."

You go to the temple with your sacrifice and you come home loaded
down with most of the meat for yourself. What a liberal gift you
just gave! Many of the worshipers would then go down to the
local butcher shop and sell the bulk of their "Offering." So
when a Christian walked into the butcher shop maybe most of the
meat had been offered to idols. How could a Christian avoid it?
I guess you could be vegetarian. The Jerusalem council in Acts
15:29 commanded that all Christians not eat meat offered to
idols.

In all practical purposes this quarantined all Christians from
eating at festivals, banquets or other festive trade guild events
of the world. By staying at home Christians were committing
financial suicide. How can you make it if you can't associate
with the people that are buying and selling your purple? So,
it's not easy to stand or the right. Do we stand for the right?
If your boss says to go and drive this truck on Sabbath, whether
you want to or not, what do you do? Is it easy to stand for the
right? Maybe we ought not to be at some of these drunken
occasions anyway. Jezebel said: "What difference does a little
contemporary compromise make? Not much. Just join in. If you
don't, you will lose your job. So give in to the pressures of
society and your boss. God will understand, He won't really
care. No! That's what Jezebel says. That's not what Jesus
says.

God does care. Absolutely He cares. Be true to God. Romans
12:2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. What Jesus thinks
of me on Judgement day is far more important than worldly rank or
fortune.

So stand for the right! Is there such a thing as "right?"
Absolutely! Did you know that fully three fourths of young Post
Modern Americans do not believe that there is such thing as
absolute truth, right or wrong? To them everything is relative.
There is no absolute truth. But I will tell you that to God
there is a right and a wrong.

It's interesting that Jezebel is from Thyatira where most of the
folk worked at dying cloth. She was the woman who walked around
all painted up like Jezebel and with her hair dyed purple
perhaps? When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her
eyes, II Kings 9:30. The Thyatira crowd were good at dyeing.
And they were dying.

Jesus cautions the Thyatiran remnant to "Hold on to what you
have until I come. - Revelation 2: 25.

Notice the Promises that Jesus gives to each church. Let's take
a look at all the Seven churches for a moment. Notice that the
promises get more numerous.

EPHESUS, the first Church gets one promise: the tree of life.

SMYRNA, the second Church gets two promises: the Crown of life,
and not being hurt by the second death!

PERGAMUM, the third Church gets three promises: (Revelation
2:17) The hidden manna, the white stone, and a new name.

THYATIRA, the fourth Church, the church of our study today, gets
four promises! (Revelation 2:26,27) "To him who overcomes
and does my will to the end, (1) I will give authority
over the nations (2) He will rule them with an iron
scepter;(3) he will dash them to pieces like pottery' --
just as I have received authority from my Father. (4) I
will also give him the morning star." - They get Authority
over the nations, They will Rule over the nations, They will Dash
the nations, and they get the morning star. Four promises for
church number four!

SARDIS, the fifth Church gets five! Revelation 3:4 They will
Walk with me, They will be dressed in White, Their name will not
be blotted out, I will Acknowledge their names before the Father,
and lastly I will Acknowledge their name before My angels. Five
promises for church number five!

PHILADELPHIA, the sixth Church gets six promises! Revelation
3:10 - They will be Kept, Verse 12 they will be made a pillar in
the temple of God, they will never leave it, they will have the
name of God written on them, they will also have name of city of
God, and sixth God's new name will be given to them. Six
promises for church number six!

So we come to church number seven. LAODICEA. How many promises
does it get? Revelation 3:21 - Only One! What happened? Why
just one?

Well you will have to find out on May 24 when Dr. Steve Bauer
preaches the sermon on Laodicea. But what is that one promise?
To sit on throne with Jesus. When you sit on the throne with
Jesus you have it all. (Thanks to Dr. John Pauline for these
analogies.)

Almost every church has declined further than the last church but
each church gets more promises than the church before. And that
is how God works. The further you decline the more help heaven
sends to support you. Paul says: But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. - Romans 5:20. The great God of
Heaven reaches out to us. The deeper we are the further He
extends His arm to save us.

Let's look in more detail at the Promises to the fourth church,
the Thyatira church. Of all these twenty-two promises given to
these seven churches, each one of them can be ours. If you go
back here to Revelation 2:22,

Promise #1- you'll have Authority over the nations - the
saints share in Jesus' authority during the millennium and
throughout eternity.

Promise #2- you will Rule with the
iron scepter - In Bible days, some shepherd's staves were made of
iron, and they were not meant for warfare but for safety and
protection.

Promise #3- you will Dash the nations -
Arrogance and haughtiness will be crushed out.

Promise
#4- you will have The Morning Star - The morning star is usually
Venus. The morning star appears after the darkest part of the
night. And when does Jesus Christ appear to this church that
existed during the dark ages? During the darkest part. Just
before the light here comes the morning star, Jesus Christ to
this church. God raised up John Wycliffe, and John Huss and many
other to bring in the light, the Word of God. In fact, Wycliffe
is often called "The Morning Star of the Reformation." And as
the morning star rises just after the long night, just so the
Christian will rise on resurrection morning after sleeping the
sleep of death during that long night. And if the truth were
known, the morning star is Jesus Christ. Revelation
22:16.

- The saints will share Jesus' authority during the
millennium, Revelation 20:6. They will also share it throughout
eternity, Revelation 22:5.

- Rule with the rod of iron.
In Bible days this was an iron shepherds staff which was used for
safety not conquest. Jesus promises safety.

- Arrogance
and haughtiness will be crushed out

4- The Morning Star will be given to them.

The Morning Star (Venus?) appears near the end of the dark night.
After the dark ages there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
God raised up Wycliffe, John Huss and others to bring in the
light of the Bible. In fact, Wycliffe is often called the
Morning Star of the Reformation.

As the morning star rises after the long dark night, just so the
Christian will rise on resurrection morning after sleeping during
the night of death. If the truth were known, the Bright and
Morning Star is really Jesus! Revelation 22:16. At the time
Christians were passing through their darkest hour here comes
Jesus Himself as the bright and Morning Star, the Light of the
World!

Keep your eyes fixed on the Morning Star. Do not allow any other
star to eclipse Jesus from your view, your horizon. The movie
stars often steal our time from gazing at the Morning Star which
is Jesus.

We are learning truly amazing things here about God's character
from our study of these seven churches. No wonder Jesus says:
Revelation 2:29 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches."

Next week we're going to talk about Sardis. I think you'll enjoy
that.